The Broad, Los Angeles: history, what to see, how to get there, hours and tickets

The Broad in Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum downtown, on Bunker Hill, at 221 S. Grand Avenue. General admission is free. Its collection holds more than 2,000 postwar and contemporary works by nearly 200 artists, from Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat to Jeff Koons and Yayoi Kusama.

History of The Broad and its collection

The museum was founded by the philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who built their collection of postwar and contemporary art over about 50 years. They believed the best collections are formed while the art is being made, so they bought the work of their own time. In 1984 they created The Broad Art Foundation as a lending library for other museums. It has loaned works to museums worldwide more than 9,000 times.

Eli Broad founded two Fortune 500 companies in different industries, KB Home (formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation) and SunAmerica. He was the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA), and in 1996 he and then-Mayor Richard Riordan led the fundraising for Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The Broad opened in 2015 as a gift to the city of Los Angeles. Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed it in collaboration with Gensler: 120,000 square feet, $140 million, two floors of galleries. In 2016 the U.S. Green Building Council gave it LEED Gold certification, and the museum says it was the first major art museum in Los Angeles to earn it. Eli Broad died on April 30, 2021, at 87.

It now draws more than 900,000 visitors a year. The same architects are building an expansion on Hope Street, which the museum plans to open in 2028, before the Los Angeles Olympics, with 70% more gallery space.

What to see at The Broad

The building. The architects call it "the veil and the vault." The vault is a heavy, opaque mass in the middle of the building that stores the works not on display or on loan. Its carved underside shapes the lobby and its top is the floor of the main gallery. Windows let you look into it. Around it is the veil, a white honeycomb structure that filters daylight into the galleries; the 35,000-square-foot top-floor gallery is lit most days by skylights.

The collection. Works rotate. The deepest holdings are of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Bradford, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Takashi Murakami, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. Check the Now On View page for what is up.

Kusama's mirror room. Yayoi Kusama's "Infinity Mirrored Room - The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away" (2013) is on the first floor: a room of mirrors, LED lights and water that takes up to four visitors at a time for one minute. It is part of the collection and no end date has been announced. It is free but needs its own timed ticket. The LEDs flash and a door closes behind you, so the museum suggests skipping it if either bothers you.

The plaza. South of the museum is the public East West Bank Plaza, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Hood Design Studio, with 100-year-old Barouni olive trees and an open lawn.

Tours. A free public tour runs every day at 3 pm in the third-floor galleries, and a Spanish-language tour runs Sundays at 3 pm. The free mobile guide on Bloomberg Connects (no download) has maps, audio tours and a family tour narrated by LeVar Burton.

How to get to The Broad

The closest Metro station is Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill, on the A and E Lines. The pedestrian bridge over Hope Street is closed for now, so follow the signs to the entrance on Grand Avenue. The A and E Lines run without a transfer to Little Tokyo, Union Station, Chinatown, Exposition Park and Santa Monica; Union Station is about eight minutes on the A Line.

Civic Center/Grand Park Station is an eight-minute walk away, with the B Line straight to Hollywood/Highland and Universal City. The nearest Metro bus stops are 1st & Grand and Grand/3rd. Routes and schedules are on metro.net.

The garage under the museum is entered only from 2nd Street off Grand Avenue. While the expansion is built, Hope Street is closed between General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way and 2nd Street, so come by Grand Avenue. The garage is open 9 am to 10:30 pm. Accessible spaces, EV charging and free bike parking are on level P1.

The museum does not validate other garages. Parking rates checked November 5, 2026, on thebroad.org.

Hours and tickets at The Broad

It is also closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Hours and prices checked November 5, 2026, on thebroad.org. Check the visit page before you go.

Book at thebroad.org/tickets. Entry times start every 15 minutes and early entry is not allowed. Free tickets are good up to an hour after the printed time, but admission stops 30 minutes before closing. Mirror room entry is guaranteed only within 10 minutes of your time, with no same-day re-entry. You can book up to six general tickets at once.

Tickets for the following month are released on the last Wednesday of each month at 10 am Pacific. Extra tickets go online daily; the museum says your best chance for the next day is in the evening after 4:30 pm. Without a booking you can join the standby line, which the museum says usually takes 15 to 30 minutes on weekdays.

Rules and tips

• No food or drink inside; baby bottles are fine.
• Bag check is limited. Leave bags and backpacks larger than 11 x 17 x 8 inches at home or in the car, and wear backpacks on your front.
• Personal photos and phone video are allowed unless a sign says otherwise. No flash, tripods, monopods or selfie sticks. Pencil sketching is fine in sketchbooks up to 11 x 7 inches.
• Every child who can walk needs a ticket; children in strollers or carried do not. For the mirror room, everyone 2 and up books. Children under 13 must come with an adult.
• Standard single strollers are allowed but not on escalators. Wheelchairs are free in the lobby, and all galleries are accessible.
• No smoking anywhere on the property, the plaza included.

Walt Disney Concert Hall is across 2nd Street, about two minutes away, and MOCA is across Grand Avenue. Grand Central Market is about a ten-minute walk downhill along Grand Avenue and Hill Street, partly by the Angels Flight funicular. More sights are on our Los Angeles places page, and the city as a whole is in our Los Angeles guide.

Questions people ask

How much does it cost to visit The Broad?

General admission to The Broad is always free, though the museum recommends booking a timed ticket in advance. The ticket for Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room is also free but must be booked ahead. Some exhibitions and events carry a separate charge, and the museum garage costs $19 for three hours with validation.

Can I go to The Broad without a reservation?

Yes. The Broad takes walk-ups daily through its standby line, and the museum says weekday waits are usually 15 to 30 minutes. Extra tickets are also released online every day, with the best chance for next-day tickets in the evening after 4:30 pm. The Kusama mirror room cannot be seen without an advance ticket.

How do I get into the Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room?

Book the free "Infinity Mirrored Room + General Admission" ticket, limited to four per group. Tickets for the next month are released on the last Wednesday of each month at 10 am Pacific. Entry is only guaranteed within 10 minutes of your ticketed time. Up to four visitors share the room for one minute.

What is the closest Metro station to The Broad?

Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill Station on the A and E Lines is the closest, steps from the museum. Civic Center/Grand Park Station, an eight-minute walk away, has the B Line to Hollywood without a transfer.